Search This Blog

The Beast of the Lost Island

For my final project in my Mythology class I created my own mythical creature and had to write a creative short story about it. Soooo... here it is. :) (oh and I also made a visual which was a stuffed animal version of my creature)

The Beast of the Lost Island

In
the days of Zeus, legends were not just mere tales, but rather warnings and
reminders. It is told that Hecate,
goddess of many things including lunar lore, the night sky, and the sea had a
child in secret. It was a terrifying beast
that scared even its mother. It had the
body of a ferocious lion and bird-like talons and beak. Its wings were those of a bat and its eyes
totaled four. Hecate, terrified of what
her child might do to people trapped it on an island. To make it difficult for people to find the
island populated with the beast, Hecate made the island disappear. However, Hecate was still weak from
childbirth. The island stayed hidden for
a while but then began to shift back and forth from being hidden and being
visible.

Rumors whispered in the dark alleys
of Delos told of a mysterious island which was sometimes seen off the
coast. This island, off the eastern coast of Delos
was strange in the fact that it was only visible some of the time. It was almost as if it was a vanishing
island. The populous of Delos decided to
venture out to the island when it was visible and investigate it. A small boat with five men set out to the
nearby island. They pulled ashore and
discovered it to be a very beautiful place, with tall trees, long beaches, and
a large mountain towards the center of the island. The men set out towards the
center of the island to see what they could find. As they drew closer to the mountain one of
the men, Sigurd, thought he heard something cry out from the cave on the top of
the mountain, something between the call of a bird and the screech of a
bat. He carried on however and the men
soon made camp near the base of the mountain.
The sky grew dark and all of the men went to sleep except Sigurd, who
sat watching the fire. He thought he
heard the cry from earlier, but disregarded it as a flashback. He listened to the quiet of the island around
him, until he heard rocks shifting on the mountainside next to him. He thought he heard movement and looked
up. On the mountainside, way above him
was a figure, clearly visible; whose four devilish
spider-like eyes were watching his every move.
He picked up a log from the fire for safety and tried waking up the
other men. As they stumbled out of their
shelters the beast swooped down and grabbed one of them with its long horrible
talons and carried him off to his cave.
The rest of the men ran from the mountain in a scramble to get back to
the boat. The beast returned and with
talons extended swooped at Sigurd, but he ducked and the beast instead left
with one of the other men. By the time
the men made it back to the boat another man had been snatched and only two of
them were left, Sigurd and his friend Ermete.
As they clambered into the boat and set off they finally turned around
to see if the beast was after them. It
was on the beach, watching them as it paced back and forth.

Once Sigurd and Ermete arrived back
at Delos they warned the city of the terrible beast that dwelled on the
island. They gave the creature the name The
Taloned Trómdelos and dubbed the island itself The Lost Island. Sigurd and Ermete’s words live on in legend
and myth as a warning and a reminder to the people of Delos and the surrounding
lands to beware the island that disappears and reappears.

Trómdelos:

(Trómos –terror, Delos- the island the explorers were from)
meaning the terror of Delos

Sigurd:

Sigurd was the hero of the Norse legend the 'Volsungasaga',
which tells how his foster-father Regin sent him to recover a hoard of gold
guarded by the dragon Fafnir. After slaying the dragon Sigurd tasted some of
its blood, enabling him to understand the language of birds. By listening to
the birds Sigurd learned that Regin was planning to betray him.

Ermete:

“Hermes” in Italian. Hermes
was a Greek god associated with speed and good luck, who served as a
messenger to Zeus.